Sales+Savy

Marilyn Bender || ||
 * || =Selling Your Services=

Overview
You are an Admissions Director working for a large healthcare organization that provides skilled nursing and rehabilitation services. Census in your buildings is down and you must market your center's services to physicians, hospitals and the community. Prospective customers are concerned about the quality of care and the competency of staff in centers like yours. You must build relationships with referral sources, earn credibility and inspire confidence in your contacts, educate people on your services, differentiate your centers from the competition's and close the deal to capture their business. In this simulation, you will select your contacts, generate leads, get referrals and make appointments. Approach your contacts in a manner that establishes rapport and builds trust and credibility. Ask the right questions to analyze clients' needs. Present your services in a manner that demonstrates value and overcomes their objections and obstacles. Win points by closing the deal. Tap into to the product and service knowledge base and your virtual coach for help in sticky situations. See how you are doing at all times by monitoring your customer's interest level, your credibility level and your region's census level. Be careful, if you let these gauges drop too low, your customer will stop talking to you. Let your census fall too low and you are out of a job - game over.

Instructional Objective
1.  Demonstrate an organized approach to managing multiple daily tasks including generating leads, getting referrals, conducting face-to-face sales meetings and managing client accounts. 2.  Execute the six step sales process while establishing rapport, building trust and credibility and developing client interest in your services. 3.  Demonstrate effective questioning, probing and listening skills to learn more about client needs. 4.  Identify and explain the appropriate product to present to the client.

Learners
This game is designed for college educated adults employed as marketing managers and facility admissions directors. They are new to their job roles but have some experience in sales and marketing. They have varied knowledge of the specific services they are now responsible for selling. Individuals who are successful in this job role are self-directed, eager and competitive.

Context of Use
This game is designed to be played on a computer, in the work setting or at home by a single player. The length of the game depends on the performance of the player. The player could fail out fairly quickly if he or she is unable to generate leads and earn credibility and client interest points. Successful players could play for long periods of time or over multiple sessions. The game presents a number of scenarios and combinations of actions so it can be played multiple times with different results. This game provides practice in prioritizing and organizing multiple marketing tasks using an "in basket" type format. In executing the various tasks, players gain practice in prioritizing their leads and talking to customers. This practice is best conducted as a pre-requisite to instructor-led training and live role play practice. The computer-based game practice allows the user to make mistakes in private and gain knowledge and skills required to perform confidently in the class room and then in the work setting. The game setting also provides post-training practice for those wishing additional opportunity to hone their skills prior to actual client contact. The game is designed in a flash platform. The simulation demonstrates the relationships among multiple variables controlled by the player. A data base of activities and mathematical algorithms generate scores and consequences for player actions.

Scope
This game contains two design formats. 1) A simulation of a market managers or admissions director’s job provides practice prioritizing and managing daily tasks and generating sales opportunities. The game scoring engine shows the interrelated nature of various actions on overall performance. Four choices are presented at a time. The player chooses which to respond to first. When a prospect is selected, the player then chooses what to do with him or her; call now, call later, delegate or send information. The player chooses which opportunities to respond to, when to pursue leads and when to request meetings. Choosing the well qualified prospect leads to a sales interview and the opportunity to build census. Choosing to contact a less qualified prospect will not led to a contact scenario resulting in a referral or admission but it will lead to an information and relationship building interview. Every prospect is a potential referral, however some by require more contacts than others to build a relationship that results in a later referral. Prospects will continue to appear from the inbox until they are selected for action. If they are ignored too long, they will not return in the inbox and the opportunity will be lost.

2) Branching scenarios illustrate cause and effect relationships in the sales interview process. As described earlier, some contact scenarios will be informational and while not resulting in a referral, may result in a client relationship and later opportunity for a sales contact scenario from a new inquiry from the prospect through the in box. The player's choices of responses during the contact interview will impact the player's scores in credibility, client interest and product knowledge. If the player follows the success path, which is the appropriate use of the IMPACT steps, the branch leads to a referral and census goes up. If the branch terminates in an uninterested customer, census drops.

A virtual coach is also available to provide assistance at any time. The player can click on the coach for advice at specific stages in the sales interview. The coach may also make unsolicited appearances to provide positive or constructive feedback to the player or to prompt the player to take specific actions that may have been overlooked. For example, if the player has ignored a specific prospect for too long, the coach may prompt the player to return to the in box and take some action to keep from losing the prospect. A research knowledge base is available to players. At any time, the player can click the research tab to look up information needed to answer client questions.

The game opens in the research tab with a brief description of the object of the simulation, the meaning of the gauges and how points are earned or lost. It tells the player how and when to use the research, coach and in box tabs. The player is instructed to browse the contents of the research tab, return to explore product information as needed and, when ready, to start by clicking on the in box tab and reviewing his or her list of prospects needing attention.

Object of the Game
The object of the game is to make enough sales to keep the facility census at a high level. The game is over if the census drops below 55%. The player needs to prioritize and contact prospects in a manner that generates sales interview opportunities. During the sales interview, the player needs to successfully execute the six step sales process in order to make a sale. During the customer sales interview, the player needs to build and maintain trust and credibility, generate client interest in his or her services and demonstrate product knowledge. If the player's scores in credibility, interest and product knowledge drop below 65%, the customer stops talking and the sales opportunity is lost dropping census scores. The game is over when the player achieves 100% capacity in his or her facility. This results from tracking the success path of a contact scenario 98% of time.

Competing Products
Competing products are hard to find. This type of a sales training simulation for a specific industry and process can be created by a simulation development company at a significant cost. No free samples were found.

Design Details
The player begins by clicking on the in box and screening four potential prospects. The player must prioritize among the four prospects and contact the one best suited to result in an admission or a referral relationship. The player selects a prospect and then decides what to do with that prospect; call now, call later, send information or delegate. Prospects not chosen for action may return the next time the player clicks on the prospects in box to begin another contact. Prospects not chosen may also disappear if the prospect looses interest and moves on due to lack of attention. Disappearing prospects will lower the players "client interest" score and may reduce the number of prospects available to the player for contact. Without prospects to contact, the player’s census score will drop. This image shows the in box screen with four prospects listed. The first prospect is chosen to contact and the "call now" activity is selected. When the player selects the "call now," action for a selected prospect, the game will progress to the interview phase with that prospect. The player then steps through a branching interview scenario where the player must effectively demonstrate the proper sequence of steps in the IMPACT sales process.



This scene shows the sales interview in progress. The contact responds with a concern. The player must select the best response based on which step in the IMPACT process the player is in. The player chooses the top response to this client's comment. Feedback is provided in the next frame in the form the client’s logical reaction to the players selected response. The best answer is the one aligned with the appropriate step in the IMPACT process that the interview is tracking. A poor choice of response may lead the client to voice additional concerns or hang up. The player's credibility score will reflect a wrong turn in managing the interview and client relationship.

In this scene the player elects to ask the coach for help on how to respond. The coach reminds the player to follow the sequence of IMPACT without skipping any steps and provides a reminder of which step the player is in. The coach suggests that a probe-type response rather than a convince-type response would be most appropriate.

If the player progresses through the interview successfully, the client will commit to an admission to the player's facility. The player's census score will reflect the positive outcome. Once the player has completed the contact interview, he or she will return to the prospect screen to select the next client to contact. Satisfied clients may become referral sources so they may return as a new prospect with a different scenario.



The game interface also contains a research tab. When the player selects the research tab, her or she can explore concepts and search the product knowledge base. The game pauses when the player is in the Research tab. The player is encouraged to explore the topic areas within the knowledge base. The time spent in research will not affect the player’s scores.

The prospect in box logic is described in this [|ProspectInBoxPath.pdf]. document. The [|impactsuccespath.pdf] document describes the game content. It describes the IMPACT process and also the success path for the branching scenario for contact interviews.

//**Technical Elements**// This game will be designed in Flash platform. Graphics will be jpegs at 72 dpi. Sounds will be in MP3 format. The game must be SCORM compliant to play on a hosted LMS.

Motivational Issues
Keller and Suzuki (1988) describe the application of Keller's ARCS model of motivation to game play. Game play can provide an effective method of reinforcing job training by arousing ** attention ** and engaging learners in an activity that holds his or her interest. // Sell Your Services // gets players attention by presenting a ** relevant ** job related challenge. The challenges are realistic and are presented at a pace that mirrors the work load of a sales person. Appropriate prioritization of prospects leads to contacts which lead to sales. Basic information is presented about the prospect sparking curiosity and uncertainty. The player needs to pursue the contact in order to assess the likelihood of a successful contact interview.

Players need challenge but they must also feel ** confident ** that the challenge is within their reach and success is possible. For this reason, there are two layers of game play. The first is the prioritization of prospects. There are no directly correct or incorrect choices at this level. Choosing to contact the best qualified prospect will lead directly to a sales interview scenario. But picking a less qualified referral will not lead to an adverse impact. Informational and relationship building interviews with less qualified prospects is not a waste of time. While no referral will be gained, the contact may return as a prospect in the in box later with a more immediate need. The second layer of game play is the branching scenario of a sales interview which is more challenging. The intent is to vary the difficulty level as the game progresses in order to maintain the player's interest as novelty wears off.

According to Malone and Lepper (1988), learning environments that offer control motivate players. This game engages players because they control the path of the game by selecting which prospects to contact and also by selecting their responses in the interview scenarios. They can also take a time out to engage in exploratory learning through the knowledge base if they feel that would be a more productive use of their time. The awarding of census points for successful interviews provides ** satisfaction ** for players. When a player progress correctly through the IMPACT process in the sales interview, the client commits to a referral and the census gauge advances. If the player selects the incorrect response, the impact of that choice is reflected immediately in the credibility and client interest scores and also by the client's next comment. Instant feedback keeps the player focused. He or she is motivated by an intrinsic desire to advance census and win the game.

Design Process
I have the opportunity to work with a variety of people and content areas as an instructional designer and development for e-learning with my employer. I am currently working with an SME in the marketing department to help her move to a blended solution for her sales training program. She is looking to create e-learning courses for the product knowledge content while continuing with instructor-led training for the sales process and role play practice. Using a simulation to provide the opportunity to practice the sales interview would be a good use of technology. However, the cost of producing a simulation is too high to pursue. It does make a good topic for this project. The SME provided me with content and also her perspective on the characteristics and motivation of the target audience. Her description of a typical day for a sales person inspired the idea for two levels of game play; prioritizing prospects and also the interview process.

I had originally considered a third layer of game play to assist the player with acquiring product knowledge. This would have been a mini game within the game where the player could take a time out and earn additional points by playing jeopardy like quiz. This idea was refined into the Ask Coach tab and also the Research tab. Rather than using a game format, information is available to encourage exploratory learning in the product knowledge content. Visualizing the game interface through PowerPoint led to further refinements in navigation, player control and how the two game layers would work together. Classmates provided feedback that led me to clarify descriptions of the coach and research tabs.

What I learned in this process is that there is a tremendous complexity on the technological side of simulation design. This game would have to have a rather sophisticated algorithmic scoring engine which I have no idea how to create. The branching interview scenario is less complex but requires intensive development time. Simulations and games are time consuming and expensive to create. For that reason, it seems best to reserve this format for content areas where practice in a safe environment is important, such as when wrong decisions can lead to serious consequences. In that case, practice in a simulation may be a very cost effective training method. Aside from the cost and technology issues, good design is imperative. You wouldn't want to invest the time and money on a sophisticated training program only to watch learners drop out due to boredom, or fail to achieve the learning objectives.